I've been hearing this more and more these days, so I'm going to rehash the same thing hundreds before me have said regarding post-secondary education (college and university):

What do I mean by that? It means that making such a huge decision like deciding what they'll want to do career-wise could become a large burden for the rest of their life. And the thought of not choosing and the stigma associated with not knowing is scary. It's pure evil to pressure youths to choose, especially when most probably don't have the capacity to foresee their lives 5-10+ years down the line.

"Well, those that do are simply stragglers. Most people make it out fine." As Sir Ken Robinson says, they do it despite the system, not because of it. The whole notion of forcing kids to standardization seems strange. Especially since everyone is quite different. So why should the curriculum be any different? For efficiency's sake? Then are you treating kids as nothing but an object or commodity? That's as unethical as can be.

"But that's equality!" I don't believe in equality. Equality always divides. Equality is giving everyone peanuts, despite some having peanut allergies. In the end, equality crumbles apart. I believe in justice, to be accommodating to differences, so everyone can be a little happier.

"But it was always this way. Look at our parents, they turned out just fine." Yeah, but that type of reasoning exist in every generation. The landscape was completely different when our parents were our age. It's always been like that, generation to generation. Look, in the Victorian Era, most people were uneducated and could still make a living during labour. There's no way that would be the case in our parents generation, so saying that our generation should be able to do what they did is hypocrisy.

So where do I rest in this topic? I want to see the institutions burn to the ground while I happily roast chestnut in the blaze of glory. Yes, I want to see some drastic educational reformation within my lifetime. Whether by my direct action, or having others use my stuff.

So, if you ask me whether I choose society or the individual, 9 times out of 10, I would pick the individual. Let the institutions burn. Let society turn to dust. Society has no feelings. People do. Students find their passion? Good. I will support them all the way. They want to improve and become the top? I will do as much as I can to make that happen. All for the sake of raising students that respect their life (something I failed to do).

One of my assignment for MDes is to pitch a conference paper. As mentioned in my earlier post, I've said that I like to let things settle for a while before acting on it. Because of that, I've got a nice collection of different projects and topics that aged well enough to become a solid topic (whether it's already written or not). The topic for this paper? Something I hold close to my heart:

Playgrounds.

I've ranted in the earlier incarnation of this blog about the mass upgrade of the playgrounds in Toronto, as well as the unreleased rant about the incoherent structure theme at the soon-to-be-opened Mooney's Bay playground in Ottawa. Seriously, it's an eyesore, go look at it, but I guess if that's what kids want -- no. They're plain ugly. We can't let kids think that badly designed things are OK or inevitable. That's learned helplessness at the core.

Anyway. Yes. Playgrounds. Their role is to help promote physical, mental, and social well-being of children. No, seriously. How do people design for such vague things? What's the criteria for a well-designed structure vs badly designed ones? These are some of the questions I had. And from that, I thought how nice it would be to have a framework to assist in the design process. Like some sort of drivers that must be met to pass for production.  So it's the twin of safety protocols for design, but it's more educational. Or that's how I see it. If I worded it strange, don't blame me. I've only been in this whole academically scholarly side of things for a month. But that's what I want. So I'm gonna research this.

Now my background on why I want this to be a reality: there's not much available resources on designing for kids. There are some for interaction and UI/UX design, but not much (excluding anthropometrics and ergonomics) on the physical side of things. I'd like to see a manual on design for kids. I think there are some available on "organizations" such as PlaygroundIdeas.org, but you need to join it, pitch an actual product, and give out payment information before you get their resources. I don't actually have a project, and I doubt emailing them and plead to them to hand their confidential information will go that well, so I'm just gonna have to wing it with whatever sources are available. Plus, I doubt their manuals are accredited sources of information anyways.

I've just sent in an abstract to see how it goes. If it's well-received, I guess I'll have to actually do some research on them? Or not? I don't know how conference paper work. It just seems somewhat speculative.

​I guess I'll just wait and see...

Yeah, see this thing happened again. Not updating the blog. It's so hard to hold a schedule, especially when I don't feel like writing one day, and then the BAM -- 2-3 topics spring up at once.

Here's the progress: I'm juggling a few projects so I can stop myself from stagnating on one for too long, burning my desire to be a creative person. So other than the poly knight project I sneaked into a post few days back, I've picked up another resin toy design that's been on my mind for a few months. Or should I say, working with a new material (doing new stuff is my favourite past-time). 'Cause here's the deal: I always let designs and ideas to ferment in the back of my head for a long period of time before it ripens. That's what I did for the competition, and look ma, I won! The thing is, I get couple of great ideas every now and then. I jot it down in my sketchbook, and keep thinking back on it for a few days -- to weeks -- months -- and even years. The IIDEX project was an idea I had 3 years ago, mind you.

I have this lamp on my mind since February, but I've let it settle for a few months. I want to prototype it, but just recently, the form developed even further without any known physical stimuli. It's amazing! If I can do it, I'm sure anyone can (and probably do) do it. So I shelved it for a bit longer. Right. The knight. I shelved it too to see if it can develop (because there are parts of it I'm unsure about), if after a few days, the idea is still cool, it's a keeper. So I think.

But I've wandered off a bit off-course. What I wanted to share was the toy design. I've done Squidbear about a year and a half ago. It was my first full fledged design, but I've progressed further in the form I prefer. So the proper course of action is obviously to release a redux of it... For sale... Online. And a few new designs I think will look cool. I've always wanted to venture into e-commerce, but never had a reason to do so. But this time around, I'm planning to actually do it. I'm gonna design a simple package, some graphics, and market it. It sounds totally fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

And then my other project... Which needs much more time. A picture book for kids. I have two stories, one in the works for a few weeks and the other one settling comfortably in the back of my head together with my other shelved projects. Though that said, I've no idea which one I should do first. But even that's too early. My gouache skills are still too terrible to do the story justice. I've got to practice more to increase the skills a little more.

Hahhhhh. I want to do them so bad. I want to get better at things quicker.

Critics are saying how industrial designers have it good nowadays, with the general public becoming more accepting of the ways of design -- thanks to the efforts of Steve Jobs and Apple. But I do not concur. In fact, I think industrial design is dead. Yes, you can go to school for industrial design. Yes, you will do traditionally industrial designer-y curricula. But no, you will not be hired as an industrial designer. Well, not anymore, I think.

I've come to this conclusion lately after looking around, and reading a small excerpt from a book titled "The Art of Atari" by Tim Lapetino.

It's a pretty hefty book that outlines the design, brand, and art of the legendary game company Atari. Although majority of the book talks about the art for the game manual, cover, and promotional works, there's a section discussing the role of industrial design in the company. It talks of the defectors of the electronic company Ampex, and how they created the company known as Atari. The section I found fascinating, and the reason to why I started thinking that industrial design as a profession is obsolete, was the huge role the design team had inside the company.

I'm gonna be truthful. industrial design doesn't really get the credit it deserves. When someone asks you what you do for a living, if you say "Industrial Design", first, they want to know what exactly that is, and after we tell them, they quickly lose interest. The same is true for everything else. Walk into a bookstore, and you see shelves of graphic design, architecture, fashion design, and interior design. But no industrial design. Seeing a book that talk about industrial design in a very open and tame way was quite exciting.

In the book, the author talked about the role design had on the Atari brand. This was evident in the meticulously designed logo and the graphic style that bound everything together. The industrial designers did more than design cabinets and consoles, they also illustrated and done graphics. I've got to mention that the concept art around that period had a similar aura to ID sketches. I wonder which came first? (this'll probably be a topic for the future once I've found a credible source)

But I've digressed far enough. What I am trying to say is that Industrial design in its pure form doesn't exist anymore. It's either industrial design + X or it's evolved into something almost entirely different. For example, designers that specialize in anthropometrics and ergonomics become ethnographic designers, or those that enjoy the human-object interaction side become UI/UX designers. And on the other hand, as an example, industrial designers with a background in biology may do something like biomimicry. Or those that are more environmentally-conscious become sustainable product designers.

In other words, it's difficult to become a successful jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none-type designer. One must either specialize in a single aspect of industrial design or attain a certain mastery of industrial design-plus-other disciplines. It's rare for a pure industrial designer to be hired in this rapidly evolving business climate. Because very soon, even UI/UX designers will be obsolete and run into the same exact problem.

This is what I've felt during the 4 years as an undergrad, and I've failed to decide which path to go. In the end, I've become the one type of designer that is the least palatable as a hire: a jack-of-all-trades. But I don't actually regret my decision to choose this path. In fact, I love being someone that's knowledgeable in varieties of skills. I get my joy in life by learning new things, and teaching it to others. I guess this is a testament to how much I adore teaching.

But of course, this is simply my observation. Please take it with a grain of salt.

Even with my education, personal project, and work as a TA, I probably won't be able to fill up this blog with enough content. My lineup is looking at about one post in advance, but this is just in the beginning. I'm bound to run out of steam and begin posting at a rate of about 2-3 a week. But until then, I'm just gonna try and pump out as much stuff as I can. I plan on adding actual interviews and articles, so I promise these narcissistic posts are only temporary.

I think it's important for the future readers, to kinda understand who I really am, and what kind of things I'm interested in. My posts from here on out will reflect that, so you'll get an idea what will be posted here. Sure, I guess I can link my Pinterest account for you to see. In fact, I will.

Every time I show this site to those around me, I always get asked what the little nematode things are. Frankly, I don't know. But I like it. They came to me -- figuratively speaking -- when I was frustrated while designing a logo for the site. Cynically, I drew a dumb looking slime (because I was working on the bean bag design at the same time) out of contempt for all the well designed, clean graphics. Annnnnnnnnnd it stuck.

It's cute, and it reflects the stuff I want my stuff to be known for: something that both kids and adults would enjoy. That's the reason I chose the mature colour scheme, and paired it with rounded san serif and quirky serif typefaces. It's also the reason why I went with the animated gif buttons, even though I know that it doesn't look like buttons. I'll change it soon, I promise...

But first, I'm going to got through the stuff that made me the person I am.

I guess that's enough for now. I may revisit this theme in the future and fill out other parts of my life. Who knows.